The Brazilian Public Software: new models of economic cooperation between State and Civil Society

Abstract

The Brazilian Public Software Portal is a virtual network of shared knowledge based production. In 2010, this interorganizational network had forty public softwares online. Each one of them is developed by a specific community that adopts democratic norms and practices of management. Public software can be defined as a technological good supported by the Ministry of Planning of the Federal Government of Brazil and available to society by various organizations. The goal of this article is to present results of a quantitative and qualitative research conducted in 2009 about this project. The results were obtained to verify two hypotheses: the first one asserts that the Portal network is a space that reinforces a business model based on services in the field of public and free software production in Brazil. The second hypothesis affirms the contemporary tendency of enhancing interaction and cooperation models between State and society, based on the existing emergency of new interorganizational, public and virtual networks based on the development of strategic alliances among social actors.